Tag Archives: 00s

#3376: Classic Iron Man, Bolt Face Iron Man, & AIM Soldier

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

CLASSIC IRON MAN, BOLT FACE IRON MAN, & AIM SOLDIER

MARVEL MINIMATES

2008 into 2009 was quite a resurgence for Iron Man, due to that whole, you know, really successful movie thing he had going for him.  In the world of Marvel Minimates, it meant that he went from a character with one release every now and then to a character that could very seriously be banked upon.  In the space of about a year, his number of Minimates tripled, and we even got some looping back for proper updates to older releases.  He wound up as an anchor figure for the line’s 25th series, which saw him get two different figures, each packed with an AIM Soldier.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Classic Iron Man and the AIM Soldier were released in the 25th specialty series of Marvel Minimates, with Bolt Face Iron Man swapping out for Classic Iron Man in the one-per-case Variant set.  Classic Iron Man and the AIM soldier would both also see release in the third TRU-exclusive series, albeit split up and packed with other figures (Mark I War Machine for Classic IM and Bucky Cap for the AIM Soldier).  Series 25 hit in May of 2009, and TRU Series 3 hit the following month.

CLASSIC IRON MAN

“Continually improving his Iron Man armor designs, the brilliant Tony Stark’s early red and gold armor set the standard for years to come by combining lightweight and maneuverable armor with new Repulsor technology!”

Iron Man had debuted with his classic armor in Series 6, but it had been a couple of years since that at this point, and there hadn’t been a proper update to the design since.  With all of the new attention, DST opted to do an all-new one, based again on his ’70s-’80s armor.  The figure is built on the standard post-C3 ‘mate body, so he’s about 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Classic Iron Man got a rather astounding 9 add-on pieces for this release, which included the helmet, belt, collar, shoulder, arm, and leg cuffs.  All of the pieces were new for this release, and represented DST moving to a generally more sculpted approach to even classically-based designs, although it also showed more of a melding between purely sculpted and printed detailing, as well as a general slimming down of certain figures.  The gloves and boots get cuffs without the need of full hand and feet pieces, and the shoulders get their add-ons without needing to bulk up the whole torso.  It was honestly a pretty big change-up.  The shoulders in particular are a little frustrating, since they had trouble staying properly in place, but they do look good when properly set.  Iron Man’s paint work is pretty involve, with a lot of detail line work on just about all of the surfaces.  While the prior Classic Iron Man had used flat colors, this one used metallic red and gold.  The gold’s a little on the orange side, which kind of muddies the look just a bit.  On the plus side, it’s held up better long term than other gold paints, so it at least doesn’t look awful.  I was never much of a fan of the face plate on the helmet for this guy, though; something about the spacing of the eyes, coupled with the actual eyes being visible, just doesn’t work for me.  It was a pretty common complaint at the time of release, and DST changed it up for later releases of the designs, so they seemed to agree.  Under the helmet, there’s a slightly more intense facial expression for Tony, which was honestly a pretty decent look.  Classic Iron Man was packed with an alternate hair piece (re-used from 24‘s Tony Almeida) and an alternate left repulsor hand.

BOLT FACE IRON MAN

“Similar to his previous armor designs, this improved model featured modular components such as the Black Light Tracer, Reverser Ray, Miniature Generator and even a Proximity Alarm designed to mimic Spider-Man’s Spider Sense!”

We couldn’t just have one Iron Man, so we got two instead.  This one goes for a just prior to classic look, ever so affectionately dubbed “Bolt Face” due to the rivets on the faceplate.  We’d sort of gotten this armor before in its horn-masked iteration, but this was the first proper “Bolt Face.”  Structurally, he’s largely the same as the standard version, though he ditches the shoulder add-ons and gets the Series 6 belt, which gives him a slightly older school look.  His paint scheme is also pretty similar, with the shades all being the same, but the actual detail lines being changed up.  They’re really nice, not as over detailed as Classic, and just a very nice recreation of his comics look for this one.  This time around, the helmet gets blacked out eyes, and the spacing just generally looks a bit better.  The face under the helmet is a lot calmer than the standard, and is again a very ’60s looking Tony, which I really like.  Bolt Face IM got an alternate hair piece (re-used from Jack Bauer), and a repulsor hand, just like he Classic.  He also got a spare helmet, which represents the short-lived nosed faceplate, as well as the shoulder pieces, so that you could turn him into a slightly later stage Iron Man.  Technically, the pieces don’t really match the rest of the detailing on the armor, and would be more at home on the standard Iron Man.  And, actually, swapping the nosed helmet to the Classic Iron Man fixes my only real issue with that figure, and lets me leave this one in all its Bolt-Faced glory.

AIM SOLDIER

“Capable of both saving the world and destroying it, Advanced Idea Mechanics is a powerful terrorist group consisting of brilliant yet misguided scientists determined to invent more and more destructive weapons.”

The AIM Soldier marked an important change for Marvel Minimates: Army Builders!  Up to this point, you were forced to buy a duplicate of the figure packed with the Variant, and it was at this point that DST officially decided to try to make lemonade out of those lemons, and make the duped figure one that people might not mind having a dupe of.  The first offering in the army building venture was those crazy beekeeper guys themselves, who are honestly a pretty natural choice.  The AIM Soldier had two add-on pieces, one for the mask and one for the holster.  The mask was an all-new piece, and a pretty spot-on one for their classic comics look.  The holster was a re-use from Assault Punisher, and it’s a little bulky, but it’s also very easily removed if it’s not your thing.  The paint work does a quite nice job of capturing the usual AIM design; there’s plenty of line work on the suits, bot front and back, and the belts even continue all the way around the waist.  Under the mask, there’s a fully detailed face with ears and a pair of lenses.  The AIM Soldier included a standard pistol (re-used again from Assault Punisher), and a larger rotary gun, which is a slight reworking of one of of War Machine’s cannons.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this series and the Series 28 (which was originally Series 26, before it got bumped for the Origins tie-in assortment) line-ups were revealed, DST ran a contest to guess the line-ups based on daily clues.  I was actually quite good at it, and wound up winning a fair bit of free stuff because of it.  Interestingly, Iron Man and his variant were the two that stumped me, but I did get the AIM Soldier.  In general, the whole thing made me very pumped for both assortments, which, as per usual for the time, I got via Cosmic Comix.  Classic Iron Man wasn’t my go-to at the time of release, nor has he really stuck with me.  The variant, on the other hand, remains one of my favorite Iron Man variants.  Likewise, the AIM Soldier’s top two for army builders for me.

#3375: Elongated Man

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ELONGATED MAN

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

While I’ve up to this point only really mentioned him in passing here on the site, Ralph Dibney, aka the Elongated Man, is one of my favorite comic book characters, and certainly my favorite DC character. Though he’s been rattling around the DC universe since 1960, he spent his first 44 years strangely absent from other mediums, always playing second fiddle to Plastic Man. His lick finally changed in 2004, with first a DC Direct figure, and then a figure to correspond with his first animated appearance in Justice League Unlimited. I’m taking a look at the latter of those today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elongated Man was released in the first assortment of Justice League Unlimited three-packs in 2004.  He was packed in a set which was supposedly based on “The Greatest Story Never Told.”  Given that the episode in question is honestly one of Elongated Man’s largest roles on the show, it made some degree of sense.  Of course, the fact that the set packed him with Batman and Hawkgirl (who, it should be noted, was not only not wearing her Thanagarian costume in JLU, but had also not yet returned after leaving in “Starcrossed”), and did *not* feature Booster Gold, who was, you know, the main character in the episode.  I mean, sure, I’m thrilled about the inclusion of Elongated Man and all, but still.  Elongated Man was also released single-careded, in both the orange and purple card styles, in 2006 and 2007.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s built on the skinny male body (which was a tweaked Flash sculpt), which very definitely fits with the character’s depiction on the show.  He got a new head sculpt.  It’s an alright offering; not quite as spot-on as some of the others in the line, but certainly not bad.  The decision to go with the full grin doesn’t work out quite as well as they’d hoped, I feel; he didn’t really show his teeth much on the show, so it throws the likeness off just a little bit.  But, like I said, hardly a bad sculpt at all, and certainly one that made him unique from the other figures in the line.  The figure’s paint work followed the show’s lead, putting Ralph in his ’80s era purple and white costume.  It translates fairly well, and the application’s generally pretty clean.  It hasn’t held up the best on my copy, who has some chipping and wear, but that could just be a me thing.  The original three-pack release of Ralph had no accessories, but the two single releases added a weird grapple thing to clip onto his wrist.  It’s an odd piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The three-pack that Ralph was included in was one of the trickier ones to acquire early in the line’s run, and I don’t recall seeing one at retail during the original run.  I also missed out on his single releases.  Instead, I got my Elongated Man figure loose, in fact as one of my earliest purchases from All Time Toys way back in the day.  I recall being quite excited to find him, especially since it meant I didn’t get saddled with extras of the other two figures in the pack.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he *is* an Elongated Man figure, so that gives him quite a leg up in my book!

#3370: Red Tornado

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RED TORNADO

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Originally the costumed alter-ego of the humor-based Ma Hunkel in the Golden Age, the identity of Red Tornado was worked into the more serious side of DC in the ’60s, this time around as an android.  Built by T.O. Morrow to attack the JSA, Red Tornado would, unsurprisingly, turn on his creator, and join the team he was meant to destroy, before dying and then coming back and joining the JLA, and then dying some more, and then coming back some more.  Lotta dying and coming back for this guy.  Red Tornado’s first appearance in animation was as a background/cameo character in Justice League Unlimited, before getting up to a speaking role.  It wasn’t a ton, but it was a decent focus, and, most importantly, it meant toy coverage.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Red Tornado was initially released in the second round of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited tie-in line in 2004, in a three pack that included the Flash and Green Lantern.  He then got a single release in 2005, and then another in 2010.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Red Tornado is built on the medium size male base body, which was originally Green Lantern.  It’s a good match for Tornado’s build on the show, so it’s a sensible choice for a starting point.  He got a re-worked set of legs featuring his boot cuffs, as well as a unique head sculpt and an add-on for his cape.  The new pieces do a respectable job of capturing his show design, especially the head, which feels especially true to that incarnation of the character.  Red Tornado winds up rather similar to Dr. Fate when it comes to the paint work, which is decent in terms of application, but misses the mark a bit in terms of accuracy.  He steers closer to Tornado’s classic color scheme, which means that his gloves are yellow and the boots are red, when they should both actually be blue.  Moreover, the blue on his cape is far brighter than it should be for proper show accuracy.  The 2010 release would correct the issues with the paint, but the 2004 and 2005 releases were both incorrect.  Ultimately, it’s really not the end of the world, and the application is at least still pretty nice.  The three-pack version (which I have) didn’t get any accessories, but the single versions both got a tornado effect piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I know I didn’t get Red Tornado brand new, but I know I also got him pretty new.  Like, line was still running, but it was probably in a different packaging style.  According to my records, he came from Cosmic Comix, which makes a degree of sense.  I remember being pretty happy to have gotten one.  Not a ton beyond that, but he’s definitely fun.

#3356: Cad Bane

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

CAD BAND

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Cad Bane is hired by Darth Sidious to break into the Jedi Temple and steal a holocron containing the secret names of future Jedi. The resourceful and cunning bounty hunter carefully puts his plan in place using schematics of the temple, a techno-service droid and an unscrupulous shapeshifter.”

Cad Bane was introduced at the end of Clone Wars‘ first season, following in the tradition of every post-Empire entry in the franchise trying to create the next Boba Fett. In his defense, he’s probably the closest the franchise actually got to that mark, by virtue of just aiming more to be his own thing from the start, thereby making him feel a little less artificial.  The same year that Cad Bane debuted on Clone Wars, he also got his very first action figure via the tie-in toyline, and I’m taking a look at that one today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cad Bane was released in the fourth wave of the 2009 re-launch of Hasbro’s Clone Wars line, where he was figure CW22.  He was released alongside Clone Trooper Denal (who Bane notably impersonates after killing him in “Cargo of Doom”), as well as space versions of Anakin and Ahsoka.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  Bane’s articulation is lesser compared to the best in the line, lacking any movement below the hips, as well as having rather restricted motion on the elbows.  Also, due to the construction of his elbow joints, his arms have a tendency to fall apart in the middle a lot.  All of this makes him a figure that’s just really not great for posing.  He’s really just built for standing there.  Given how much Bane does in the show, it’s kind of a shame.  There were later versions with better articulation, but this one still wound up with the most releases by far, so the mold was just really persistent.  The actual sculpt is at least pretty decent.  Not a spot on recreation of the animation model, but pretty close, and about on par with the best of the earlier run sculpts, at least in terms of accuracy.  His paint work is respectable; the colors match with his show design closely enough, and the blue skin gives him a nice and unique look.  Cad was packed with a removable hat (which started the trend of Cad Banes with hats that are hard to keep in place), his two twin blaster pistols, and a larger blaster rifle (missing from mine).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Cad Bane while he was relatively new, but certainly not *brand* new.  It was probably in the spring of 2010, which is when I got a lot of my Clone Wars figures, since I suddenly had money and the means to drive myself places.  It really increased my toy buying options, I tell ya.  The figure’s honestly never been one of my favorites.  Like, he’s not bad, but he’s not really great either.  There were better versions, but they’re unfortunately a lot harder to get, which is a shame.

#3351: Commando Droid

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

COMMANDO DROID

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Commando droids land on the Rishi moon to attack a Republic outpost. Designed for surprise assaults, the droids quickly overwhelm the new clone trooper recruits stationed there. With this strategic outpost now in Separatist hands, General Grievous has everything in position to launch a surprise attack anywhere in the Outer Rim.”

Each of the Star Wars prequels added one specialized droid in addition to the standard Battle Droid, presumably to somewhat offset the general ineffectiveness of the standards.  The trend continued past the movies, with Clone Wars adding a few of its own Droids.  Most of them were situation-specific, but my personal favorite was the Commando Droid.  Introduced early in Season 1 in the episode “Rookies,” the Commandos were honestly just a more intimidating equivalent to the rank and file Battle Droids, who would become a common place feature whenever the show needed the droid threat to be genuinely threatening.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Commando Droid is figure CW16, and was released in the third assortment of the second generation of Hasbro’s Clone Wars line, which hit in 2009.  Up to this point, the line had roughly one Droid army builder per series, and the Commando Droid took that spot in this line-up.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 21 points of articulation.  Up to this point in the line, most of the droids wound up with lackluster articulation, but the Assassin Droid had changed that, and this guy followed suit.  He’s the best articulated of the Droids the line put out, effectively on the same level as the upgraded Clone body used for the ARF Trooper.  And, with the ball-joint construction on the hips, you can even swap the legs and flip the mid-section around, to do the hunch that the Commandos frequently sported on the show.  This guy got an all-new mold, which Hasbro would re-use a few more times for other Commando Droid re-decos.  It’s a really good sculpt.  It’s accurate to the animation models, while also keeping the articulation useful and still worked into the sculpt.  He’s one of the few instances of a droid actually getting movement at all of the notable joints in the actual design, so there weren’t any of the phantom joints that the main Battle Droid mold got.  The figure’s paint work is decent enough; nothing crazy or anything.  The bulk of it’s a molded gunmetal grey, with some slight accent work in gold, as well as his eyes and the insignia on his torso.  Application is all pretty clean, so that all works out rather nicely.  The Commando Droid was originally packed with a single droid style blaster, though somewhere along the way, mine seems to have picked up a second blaster somewhere along the way.  That’s definitely not standard.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Commando Droid is one of those figures that I wanted before it actually existed.  When they showed up in “Rookies”, I was immediately a fan of the design and eager to see it in figure form.  This is definitely one I actively hunted for.  If I recall correctly, he got added to my collection during a sizable run of Clone Wars purchases in early 2010, when my parents were out of town for a week, and I had regular access to a car and some money to spend.  He’s definitely one of my favorites from the line, and he holds up astoundingly well.  I’d love to see him updated to Black Series one of these days.

#3345: Dr. Fate

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

DR. FATE

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Justice League Unlimited‘s expanded roster brought with it a mix of characters, some all-new, and some with prior DCAU appearances.  Dr. Fate had shown up a few times before, with a guest appearance on Superman: The Animated Series during the show’s second season, as well as on JLU‘s precursor Justice League, as part of the Defenders homage team in “The Terror Beyond.”  The character had only a few rather brief appearances during JLU‘s run, but it didn’t really take much to justify giving someone an action figure with that show.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Fate was part of Mattel’s launch line-up for their JLU tie-in line in 2004.  He was in a three-pack alongside Green Arrow and The Flash, in a pack specifically referencing the episode “Initiation.”  Fate’s not really much of a player in that episode, but neither is Flash, so the whole thing winds up a bit odd.  It was honestly a rather frequent occurrence in the early multi-packs for the line.  Fate wound up getting re-packed a good number of times, as a single in 2005, alongside Vixen and Hawkgirl in 2006, alongside Starman and Flash in 2007, and solo once more in 2009.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Fate was built on the skinny male base body, which was patterned on the original Flash figure.  It generally fits pretty well with Fate’s depiction on the show.  He gets a new head, cape, and arms to fully sell the look.  The head’s a pretty spot-on piece, as is the cape.  The arms add his gloves, and they’re not bad, but they are a touch too long for the base body, giving him something of a monkey arms set-up.  Dr. Fate’s paint work is okay in application, but not so great in accuracy.  His colors are definitely too bright for the animated Fate, and his neck and boots both wind up being done in yellow, instead of blue like they should be for proper accuracy.  The application was at least decent, and the slightly metallic finish for the yellow parts is at least a little more visual pop.  It’s worth noting that the 2009 release actually corrected the layout of the colors, though not the actual shades of them.  For his three-pack releases, Fate got no accessories, but his single releases both got a magic effect for him to hold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I took a while to get the Dr. Fate figure from this line.  I don’t really know why, honestly.  It’s not like I dislike the character or anything.  In fact, I generally like him, and his animation design as a whole.  For whatever reason, I wound up waiting until his first solo release, which I more than likely got with a gift card after the holidays.  He’s got some issues with accuracy, and those monkey arms are a bit much, but he’s still a pretty fun figure, all things considered.

#3342: Sky B.A.T.

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

SKY B.A.T.

G.I. JOE: SIGMA 6 (HASBRO)

“COBRA Sky B.A.T. troops convert to different modes for multiple attack capabilities. Smart technology gives them the ability to automatically make the conversions themselves. Vertical Assault Packs attach to their backs and interface with their central processors to achieve complex aerial maneuvers. Armed with concussion bombs stored on their wings, they can launch devastating attacks from the air. In ground assault mode, their arms convert to powerful grenade launchers. With the addition of ionic gas canisters, they can enhance their strength and move at accelerated speed. To combat this robotic force, the Sigma 6 team has developed specialized weapons designed to disable computerized systems.”

I don’t discuss Sigma 6 enough here on the site.  In fact, I think most websites don’t discuss Sigma 6 enough.  Most people don’t discuss Sigma 6 enough.  It’s just a whole thing, honestly.  Whatever the case, the line was genuinely a delight, and an inventive refresh to the franchise.  I kind of miss it, in some ways.  In my brief rundown of the line, I’ve thus far only focused on the Joes side of things, but today, I’m moving over to the Cobra side.  In order to keep things a bit more Saturday morning friendly, the majority of the Cobra forces for the Sigma 6 reboot were variants of the B.A.T., and today, I’m taking a look at the Sky B.A.T.!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Sky B.A.T. was part of the first Soldier wave of the 2006 Sigma 6 line-up, which was the second Soldier wave overall, after the line’s end of 2005 debut.  This assortment was a pretty small one, since it was really more of a revision, so it was just the Sky B.A.T. and a variant of Storm Shadow.  This was the second B.A.T. in the line, following the Ninja B.A.T. in the 2005 Solider wave.  Though titled as a Sky B.A.T. officially, this figure was designed to served not only as a Sky B.A.T., but also as a standard issue B.A.T. as seen in the tie-in cartoon.  The figure stands about 8 inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation.  While the Joes were largely built around very similar structures and the more uniform Sigma suit design, the Cobra offerings were a bit different, and that’s especially evident with the Sky B.A.T.  His articulation layout is pretty similar to the Joes, though the shoulders and mid-torso are a little more unique here.  While the sculpts for this line generally went just a touch more realistic than the show designs (though still quite stylized), the Sky B.A.T. is one of the figures that stuck the closest to the animation models.  It translated really well, and made for a particularly cool looking toy.  The only real downside to this figure is the the arm canisters.  They’re articulated, and they’re cool in theory, but the plastic used of them is unfortunately prone to becoming very brittle over time, making them likely to shatter at the joints…as happened with one of mine.  They can at the very least be removed (carefully, of course), so if one breaks, you’re at least not stuck with an imbalanced figure.  The Sky B.A.T.’s color scheme is pretty classic Cobra fare, with lots of blues and reds.  It generally works well, although it’s another victim of time not being the kindest, since the torso yellows a little bit faster than the other blue plastic.  Thankfully, it’s pretty minor, and the overall appearance is still pretty consistent.  The Sky B.A.T. is packed with a pretty impressive wing pack, complete with articulated wings, and four removable missiles.  He also includes a rifle, which is a fun piece, which has a launching missile on the lower section.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I always wanted one of these when they were new, but I wasn’t ever able to track one down at retail.  I had a particularly good run of finding Sigma 6 figures back in 2018, and this guy was part of it, picked up from the New Jersey-based House of Fun, along with a few others.  He’s really one of the line’s star pieces, and I’m glad I was able to finally get one.  It’s a cool robot.  It’s a cool G.I. Joe toy.  It’s just a cool action figure.  Small issues with longevity of the figure aside, he’s a total win.

#3340: Nemesis

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

NEMESIS

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

Beginning as the star of a back-up feature running in Brave and the Bold (which was then serving as DC’s equivalent to Marvel’s Marvel Team-Up), Thomas Tresser aka Nemesis has never been a particularly high profile DC character, but he’s had a few notable moments over the years.  He’s certainly a different sort of character, especially for his era, being more of an espionage type of character who nevertheless still regularly interacts with the main DC heroes.  He’s kind of like a Black Widow type almost.  In this day and age of media, it’s honestly downright baffling that his only appearance outside of the comics is as a couple of cameos in Justice League Unlimited.  He did at least get a toy out of it, though.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nemesis was released in 2007, under the third iteration of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line.  He was in the fifth series following the line’s move to the purple “DC Universe” branded packaging, and was available only in a three-pack alongside Lightray and a winged variant of Amazo.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Nemesis was built on the medium male body, which was reworked from the basic Green Lantern.  It’s a good, balanced build, and was very definitely the line’s best base body.  He got the new fancy-booted legs from the prior year’s Lex Luthor, as well as that figure’s shoulder harness add-on.  Those pieces, coupled with a brand-new head sculpt, made for a really solid recreation of Nemesis’s design as seen on the show.  The head sculpt is honestly one of the line’s best, and is just a great recreation of Nemesis not only from the show, but from the comics as well.  The paint work on this guy is very basic.  Largely, he’s just molded in black.  There’s a little bit of painted add-on work, and it does what needs to, and does it pretty well.  Nemesis was *technically* not packed with any accessories, but he’s a master of disguise and the other two figures in the pack were both built on the same base body, so maybe they’re just disguises?  Yeah, let’s spin it that way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My knowledge of Nemesis really came from his stint as a supporting player in Wonder Woman.  I really dug the character there, and liked how they worked him into the overall story, fitting him loosely into that Steve Trevor role.  Beyond that, I’ve always thought he had a pretty cool look.  JLU was still very hard to find at retail when this set hit, but Cosmic Comix happened to get one in back when they were still relatively new, and I was enough of a fan of all the figures included to pick it up.  Nemesis is a great example of the line’s parts re-use really working well to give us characters we wouldn’t otherwise get.

#3324: Boromir

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

BOROMIR

LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (TOY BIZ)

“Boromir, a valiant warrior and eldest son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, joins the Fellowship to protect Frodo. However, his false beliefs about the power of the One Ring ignites a growing fascination and a desire to possess it.”

I don’t talk much about Lord of the Rings here on the site.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy the franchise, though I’ll admit I really only stick to the first three movies, it’s just that’s a rather daunting thing, and I tend to stick to the fringes of it all.  As with anything, I’ve got my favorite characters in the mix, of course.  Of all the heroes, my absolute favorite is certainly Faramir, who’s something of an unsung hero in the whole thing, but I’m also quite a fan of Faramir’s ill-fated older brother, Boromir, thanks in no small part to Sean Bean’s incredibly memorable performance in the role.  Back when the movies where being released, Toy Biz had the license for the figures, and put out a quite expansive line of figures, which rather unsurprisingly included a couple of versions of Boromir.  I’m taking a look at the first of those today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Boromir was initially released alongside Lurtz in a two-pack from Toy Biz’s Fellowship of the Ring tie-in line in 2001, and was later released solo in the wider Trilogy line following the wrap up of the Return of the King tie-ins.  The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  The Fellowship figures weren’t as posable as the later figures would be, so Boromir’s definitely a little restricted on the posability front.  He’s a little bit pre-posed, with his arms sort of jutting out, and his legs being kind of splayed.  Also, due to how the movement works, neither of his elbows is actually pointing forward, which is kind of awkward.  He does at least have a decent enough action pose about him.  Boromir’s sculpt was unique to this figure, and is fairly on par with the rest of the Fellowship figures.  He’s got a respectable enough likeness of Sean Bean on the face, and the detailing on the outfit’s pretty nice, especially the mail shirt under all of his other garb.  The figure’s proportions are definitely a bit on the chunky side, which isn’t too crazy, but it’s definitely a bit more of a stylistic choice.  It’s a more balanced set-up than other figures in the line, though, so it’s at least not dealing so much with the monkey arms that showed up a lot in the earlier figures.  Boromir’s paint work is generally more on the basic side, with mostly straight forward color work.  Some of the paint’s a little on the thick side, but the application’s pretty clean and consistent.  The grey trim on the tabard is the one exception, as it’s a little bit all over the place.  Other than that, he’s okay, and there’s even some pretty decent accenting on the hair and the chain mail.  Boromir is packed with his horn of Gondor, his sword, his shield, and his cloak.  The horn fits well in his left hand, and can hand from his belt.  The sword seems a little small and is rather bent, but it can at least be sheathed.  The shield’s actually quite a nice piece, with impressive texturing, and a strap for wearing over his shoulder.  The cloak’s a little tricky, as it doesn’t really stay firmly in place, and it also can’t be used when the shield is slung.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I picked up Faramir back in 2016, I’ve been casually on the lookout for a Boromir.  Back towards the end of 2021, a bunch of Lord of the Rings figures came through All Time.  They were largely incomplete and kind of a mess, but there just so happened to be a complete Boromir in the mix, and he was honestly pretty cheap at that moment, so, boom, your boy had a Boromir.  He’s a bit dated, but still a lot of fun.  And now I’ve got the two brothers!

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3206: Mekaneck

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

MEKANECK

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (MATTEL)

Well, would you look at that, I’ve officially been running this old site of mine for nine whole years.  What a time it’s been.  As I always like to do on these anniversaries, I’m opting to make today’s review just a little bit more special.  I’m focusing on a line that’s as of yet not gotten to be in the spotlight here, Masters of the Universe.  While my ties to MotU don’t go hardcore or anything, I did have something of an attachment to the franchise’s 2002 re-launch, which was what introduced the whole thing to me, back when I was just 10 years old.  Since early into my exposure to the franchise, I’ve had a particular attachment to the heroic warrior Mekaneck.  So, let’s look at a Mekaneck, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mekaneck was part of the second assortment of the 200x Masters of the Universe, alongside a He-Man variant and a bunch of re-packs.  The figure stands a little over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  While the original Mekaneck design was meant to re-use a good bulk of the standard male body, his 200x design was decidedly quite removed from the core look.  As such, this guy wasn’t designed with other characters in mind, so his mold was totally unique to him.  It’s a pretty great offering, courtesy of the Four Horsemen.  The updated version of the design added a lot more tech details, especially to the underlying body, but also to his armor, which was a bit more basic on his original figure.  All of the classic elements are still present, and it’s very clear who he’s supposed to be.  His distinctive chest armor, originally a piece he shared with Stinkor, was affixed permanently to the torso here, and again given a far more in depth selection of detailing.  He’s got the same neck extending feature from his vintage counterpart; twisting his waist extends his neck about an inch or so.  About the only down side to this figure’s sculpt is to do with his secondary action feature, which is gives you the ability to “see” through his head, which is done via a gaping hole in the back of his head.  It’s certainly an odd choice to be sure, since it offers minimal play value, but also results in a really obvious hole in his head.  Beyond that, though, the sculpt’s great.  The figure’s paint work is generally pretty great.  There were two versions of the paint, with the one seen here being the standard release, which technically has green goggles.  I say “technically” because the translucent plastic barely shows any deviations in the colors, so it can be hard to tell.  Mekaneck is packed with his usual distinctive mace, which he can hold in his left hand.  His arm has even been given a spring-loaded swinging feature in the elbow, which isn’t terribly impressive, but it’s alright.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The 200x incarnation’s accompanying cartoon debuted with a pilot movie, aired during Cartoon Network’s Cartoon Theatre.  I remember excitedly sitting down and watching it when it aired.  In addition to running out to get a He-Man the next day, I was also quite intrigued by Mekaneck, even with his brief appearance in the film.  His prototype had already been shown off by then, so I knew I wanted him pretty much from the start.  He was quite a rare figure at the time, but I actually had a stroke of luck on this particular release.  When I was a kid, my grandmother and I made it a ritual to visit the KB Toys at the local mall, on an almost weekly basis.  In 2003, she and my dad had located the KB Toys liquidation outlet, which was just a few hours drive from where we lived.  They planned a day trip out, and I wound up getting a whole boatload of stuff, largely older Toy Biz Marvel.  However, amongst the piles of figures that were almost a decade old by that point, I found one lone Masters figure, thrown on a random shelf, and, as luck would have it, it was Mekaneck.  Quite a thrilling find on a day of thrilling finds, really.  He’s a goofy figure, but he’s Mekaneck; he’s supposed to be goofy.  That’s what’s great about him, and that’s what’s great about this figure.